How would he react to stepping back on Court Philippe-Chatrier for his first practice session? As it turned out, he was perfectly fine. The final with Carlos Alcaraz had been, quite simply, one hell of a match and Alcaraz won it; Sinner didn’t lose it.
“Of course I still think back [about] what happened, but still very positive feelings,” the world No.1 said. “It’s a very special tournament for me, and it has been increasingly better year after year, and last year we were very close. But the feelings and the connection with the crowd was very nice. A lot of kids, which I really like to see. It was very nice also: the stairs up, the walk on.”
Clearly, there is no lingering scar tissue. Since that Sunday afternoon last summer, the Italian has been all but untouchable. He won his first Wimbledon title five weeks after the Paris heartbreak and even if Alcaraz beat him in the US Open and Novak Djokovic stopped him in Australia, almost everything else he has touched has turned to gold.
